Electric signal for mine-shafts



(No Model.)

P. W. BACORN.

ELECTRIC SIGNAL EOE MINE SEAETS.

No. 467,985. Patented Feb. 2, 1,892,

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FREDERICK IV. BAOORN, OF MARYSVILLE, MONTANA.

ELECTRIC-SIGNAL FOR MINE-SHAFTS.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 467,985, dated February 2, 1892.

Application iiled July 28,1891. Serial No. L100,966. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be itknownthat I, FREDERICK W. BACORN, a citizen of the United States, residing at Marysville,in the county of Lewis and Clarke and State of Montana, have invented certainv cage to the engineer or other parties outside of such vehicle. As at present constructed there is a rope from the bell in the engineers room which runs down to the bottom of the shaft, generally outside of the cage, which must be caught by the hands and pulled to.

ring said bell-al device which is very unreliable, and its operation is always more or less ditlcult when the cage is in slight motion, depending both on its direction and speed, and is impracticable when the cage is running at its usual or required speed. To overcome said difficulties, I have contrived an electrical apparatus which is constructed substantially as follows, namely:

The cage a is held by the usual guides or ways b and raised by a rope h, passing over a sheave to a drum, wound and unwound by an engine t', all of which said parts may be of any known construction. Into the shaft of the mine is passed a wire CZ, insulated from the shaft-timbers and open at its lowerv end, as shown, and of which the upper end is connected to an electric bell eor other signalingl device, which is connected through a wire d to earth. On the cage, or, as here shown,'un der its floor. is carried a battery c, of which one pole is connected. to a .trolley f, which connects that side of the battery with said wire d. To the opposite pole of lthe battery is connected a wire 71which runs up through the cage, and its upper end is connected to the wire hoisting-rope h, which, through the operating machinery t, connects to earth, thus completing the electric circuit of t-he battery, as shown. In said wire h and in a suitable place in the cage is placed a push-button g to make and break said circuit. NVhen for any reason the electric circuit cannot be made through the hoisting-rope of the cage or for other reasons it may be desired a second open wire (l2, like the wire d, may be putinto the shaft and connected to earth at its upper end, as shown. Said wire is then put into the circuit through the wire h above the push-button g, which is connected to a trolley j. Said wire d2 and trolley f2 and a short piece of the connecting-wire h are shown in broken lines, so as to distinguish them clearly from the other parts before mentioned.

It is not necessary that the battery che placed on the cage or vehicle, because it may really be placed atanyconvenient pointin thecircuit,as in the wiresd or d or in the wire d2, as at @dit lonly being necessary in such case to observe that 'the battery must be placed above the uppermost point reached by the cage at its upper position.' When, therefore, the circuit is closed, the return current will be established through the earth and the signaling device will be operated while the cage is in motion. 1

What Il claim is- The combination, with a mine-shaft provided with an electric conductor extending through its length, electrically open at its lower end and connected at its upper end to signaling mechanism,of a cage provided with a hoisting-rope capable of conducting an electric current, connected at its upper end to said signaling mechanism, a trolley from said cage on said electric conductor, a push-button within said cage, and connections to said trolley and hoisting-rope, substantially as specified. v

FREDERICK IV. BACORN.

IVitnesses:

WM. ZIMMEEMAN, I. H. PEDRIcK. 

